Last week, Fox News repeatedly aired the claim that the white police officer who shot and killed the unarmed African American teen, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri had suffered a fractured eye socket from an attack by Brown. The report, based on an anonymous source, originally from a right-wing blog, was nonetheless touted by every prime time host. But CNN was not only unable to confirm the injury, it has received information from its own source that there was no such fracture.

Today, on Reliable Sources, CNN’s Brian Stelter blasted Fox for complaining about a “rush to judgment” at the same time that it hyped a dubious claim that happened to fit their preferred narrative:

“Frankly, I’m surprised that Fox ripped the information off this blog and repeated it on air,” Stelter said on Sunday. “And later in the day, Fox did find its own anonymous source, and publish its own story. And every one of Fox’s primetime hosts picked up on it.”

“After all, this seemed like it changed the whole story, casting the officer as the victim of a dangerous aggressor, a dangerous black aggressor.”

But if Officer Darren Wilson did suffer such an injury, “no public official will confirm it,” Stelter said. He noted that the police chief reported that Officer Wilson had suffered a swollen face. Stelter added:

All day on Thursday, CNN reporters in Ferguson tried to confirm what Fox had claimed over and over again. But instead, a source unequivocally refuted it. …I have yet to see any firm evidence of an eye socket injury. But that does not seem to matter. Because these claims have spread all over the place, sowing doubt in people’s minds about what happened that terrible day in Ferguson.

In other words, it’s Mission Accomplished for Fox, with the truth taking a back seat to its agenda. Again.